A wide variety of electronic devices exist in the art. These electronic devices may comprise packaged integrated circuit chips, or bare chips which are unpackaged. Further, multiple integrated circuit chips can be integrated into a single multichip module. Any type of circuitry can be integrated into the chips, such as digital logic circuitry or memory circuitry or analog circuitry. Also, the circuitry in the chips can be comprised of any type of transistors, such as field effect transistors or bi-polar transistors.
One reason for trying to lower the temperature of an electronic module is that its operation may be temperature dependent. For example, a chip comprised of complementary field effect transistors (CMOS transistors) typically increases its speed of operation by approximately 0.3% per .degree. C. drop in chip temperature.
Thus, in order to increase the performance of CMOS based computers, it is advantageous to reduce the operating temperature of the chips substantially. In doing so, however, applicants have discovered that in reducing surfaces of the module below a room air dew point temperature, water vapor will condense on the exposed surfaces. Similarly, the temperature of the air in the vicinity of the module will decrease because of a cooling effect of the cold air surfaces nearby. This will result in an increase in the relative humidity of the air near the module and could adversely effect device reliability. Therefore, there exists a need in the art for a local humidity control system for a low temperature electronic module.